The Conflict Between Russia And Russia

The Russian Civil War (1918-1922) was a fight for political power between the Bolshevik Red Army, who fought for socialism, and the White Army. During this time, the Bolshevik’s secret Communist Police, the Cheka, conducted a series of military operations that became known as the Red Terror. The Red Terror was more than just a collection of mass arrests, tortures, and murders; it was systematic oppression that targeted an entire class. The Red Terror helped the Red Army win the Russian Civil War through any means necessary.

One of the most controversial topics among historians is the origins of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). The war began in 1947 right after the end of World War II and lasted until 1991. This war was more of a time period of competition among powers, than an actual war, which lasted 44 years. They faced problems of ideologies of free-market capitalistic America versing communistic Russia, geopolitics, and an economic struggle between two former World War II allies. Historians have long argued and taken many different sides on who started the Cold War. These views have been categorized into: realism/traditionalism, revisionism, and post-revisionism. Nevertheless the rivalry between the two superpowers was tense. To understand the underlying problems between the USSR and the United States, it is crucial to go back into history and reflect on pre World War II.

After WW1, There was a power struggle for the leader of Russia. High level government workers Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky fought for the throne after the untimely death of Vladimir Lenin.

After WWII, the USA and the Soviet Union faced a conflict as they competed for global power. Neighboring countries, like Afghanistan, were dragged into the conflict causing millions of people to die. Due in part to the high cost of waging this war the Soviet Union fell only four years after the conflict.

This included coordinated uprisings, organized acts of desertions from the Red Army and terrorist against the Soviets, destruction of the collective farm system in Chechnya, and support for the German war effort. From the perspective of the Soviet government, the Chechens were undoubtedly enemies of the people.

The Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union was not only a battle of political conflict but also a rivalry to spread political ideology and influence worldwide. Various pieces of propaganda and articles written during the time had largely impacted American popular opinion and had powerful effects on the culture among young men and women of the 1940’s and 1950’s. “The Red Iceberg” comic book cover, published and presented during the Cold War era, was one use of media that perpetuated the negative effects of Soviet Union political influence while promoting the righteousness of the United States. The visual rhetoric presented in “The Red Iceberg” propaganda, and others alike, instigated an emotional and fearful

World War 2 was both tragic but also a growing period for Canadians. Germany and The Soviet Union were in a non-aggression pact and were trying to take over Europe. Along with their greed for power, Hitler the leader of Germany did not like the Jewish, and sent almost all of them to concentration camps where they were put to work. Those who were too weak to work were put in gas chambers and put to death. Hitler soon broke his pact with Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union. Hitler was then faced with a two front war against the Soviet Union and the Canadian, British and later the United States. At home in Canada many things were happening within society. Women became more involved and became more independent and respected. The government

One of the main things Reagan was known for his is stance on communist and his commitment to end the Cold War. Reagan was not afraid of the Soviet Union like his Carter or Ford who served as President before him. He told the Secretary of Defense to order whatever is needed and not to worry about the budget. He wanted to be in a position of strength, that way he believed he would be able to negotiate with them; he had a saying of “To build up to build down” http://millercenter.org/president/biography/reagan-domestic-affairs. Reagan did not want there to be an arms race, however if there were to be one he was determined not to loose. The CIA confirmed that the Soviet Union’s economy could not support an arms race against the US. In Reagan’s mind, winning the Cold War meant having the Soviet Union cease to exist.

After World War II, the practices of Communism, a political ideology, quickly spread from the Soviet Union to other countries in the Eastern Hemisphere. The United States, a country that practices democracy, avidly made it known to other nations that it opposed communist practices. In response to the rapid number of nations that were beginning to practice it, the United States set a goal to limit the amount of nations that practiced it. A poorly planned invasion by the United States on Cuba and certain locations of nuclear weapons increased tensions in the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. This brought the world closer to a full out nuclear war than ever before. From choosing sides in the Ogaden War to opposing views on free enterprise, many conflicts arose between the United States and the Soviet Union which helped increase tension levels between the two nations. Ultimately, these contests led to the global awareness of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

In addition to an economic crisis, President Obama inherited the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. An ardent opponent of Bush 's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, Obama pledged to withdraw American troops as soon as possible. Reagan argued that U.S. leadership was crucial to stop the Soviet Union from expanding. Contrastingly, Obama was eager to end the campaign in Afghanistan by slowly withdrawing troops, declaring that it was time for the U.S. to focus on nation-building at home. Reagan’s strategy was based in large part on his fundamental belief that a free and capitalist economy could outperform a Communist one and force both into an arms race that they could not afford. Obama’s doctrine instead emphasized how the state needed to tax

With the 1960s approaching Americans had to to face the increasing real threat of Cold War and nuclear threat of the Soviet Union. It all started with the election of John F Kennedy in 1960. Kennedy won the 1960 election and became president of the U.S. in 1961. Kennedy defeated Republican candidate Richard Nixon in part because Kennedy played up a socalled “missile gap”, claiming that Republicans under Eisenhower had let the Soviet Union get a missile advantage over the United States. If anything he was believed to be a cold warrior. At the time Cuba leader Fidel Castro was tying his Country to Soviet Communism. The eastern block was sending military support to Cuba and this was considered a major threat to America. As Castro gained power, the relationship between the United States and Cuba worsened. In an effort to stop this alliance Kennedy allowed to the CIA to set up a coup against Castro. The bay of Pigs took place on April 16, 1961 and was a disaster for the Kennedy administration. Castro was fully aware of the rebel invasion put it down easily.

On May 8th, 1945, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel surrendered the German armed forces to the allies in Berlin, thus ending the war for Germany. The German people were then confronted by a situation never before experienced. All of Germany was occupied by foreign armies, their cities and infrastructure lay in ruins, and millions were homeless and starving. Following the unilateral surrender by Germany, the country was divided into four zones, governed by each of the allied powers: Britain, France, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. As diplomacy between the West and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate, each zone became more self-sufficient and independent of the others. Tensions between the West and the Soviet Union also began to rise as it became apparent that the two super powers, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would vie for dominance throughout the world, each seeking to spread its ideology and stop the spread of the other’s. The first real exacerbation of this conflict came when the Soviet Union blockaded the divided city of Berlin, which lay in is zone of control. The U.S.S.R. wanted to test the Western resolve to hold Berlin and maintain control. The response the U.S. chose was to keep Berlin supplied by air, through constant resupply by aircraft, a feat never before accomplished. The airlift lasted for nearly eleven months and kept the Western controlled sectors of Berlin adequately supplied, and showed the Soviet Union the U.S.’s resolve to hold out against the spread of

From the very beginning of its existence, the two states were a single entity and not separated from each other, as well as their people. Ukraine and Russia have a common early history. The development of Russian statehood began with the formation of Kievan Rus. This ancient Russian state considers its predecessor, both Russian and Ukrainian. Later, after moving the center of power in Moscow, Ukraine has become a full-fledged part of Muscovy. The territory of modern western and central Ukraine were subjected to severe influence on the part of the Commonwealth, which captures these lands in fifteen to sixteen centuries. In 1648 Zaporozhye Cossacks rebelled against Poland, led by the Cossack Bohdan Khmelnytsky, which resulted in the fact that in 1654 was convened Pereyaslavskaya Parliament, which stated that the territory controlled by the rebels come under Russian protectorate. Later these lands were integrated

The conflict between the Ukraine and Russia is the Ukraine's most long-standing and deadly crisis; since its post-Soviet independence began as a protest against the government dropping plans to forge closer trade ties with the European Union. The conflict between Russia and the Ukraine stems from more than twenty years of weak governance, the government’s inability to promote a coherent executive branch policy, an economy dominated by oligarchs and rife with corruption, heavy reliance on Russia, and distinct differences between Ukraine's population from both Eastern and Western regions in terms of linguistics, religion and ethnicity (Lucas 2009).